A man may have discovered the site of an ancient asteroid impact after he spotted a “suspicious pit” while browsing Google Maps ahead of a camping trip.
Joël Lapointe made the potentially extraordinary discovery as he was casually browsing Google Maps to plan his camping vacation in the Côte-Nord region in Quebec, Canada.
As he looked through satellite images for his camping trip on Google Maps, Lapointe stumbled across a mysterious, spherical pit that was approximately 9.3 miles (15 km) across surrounding Marsal Lake in Quebec.
According to CBC, Lapointe felt there was something about the curve of this pit that appeared suspicious.
After seeing this strange spherical feature on Google Maps, Lapointe decided to contact professional researchers, including geophysicist Pierre Rochette of the Centre de recherche en géosciences de l’environnement (CEREGE) in Aix-en-Provence, France, to help identify it.
Although structures spotted on Google Maps often turn out to be insignificant, the researchers concluded that an ancient asteroid impact event may have caused this one.
Experts now believe the suspicious pit may be a massive crater created by an ancient meteor.
A Rare Discovery on Google Maps
According to NASA, an impact crater is formed when an object like an asteroid or meteorite crashes into the surface of a larger solid object like a planet or a moon. Some craters can date back millions or even a hundred million years.
“Looking at the topography, it’s very suggestive of impact,” Rochette tells CBC.
Rochette, who has already obtained samples from the site, reports that at least one contains zircon — a durable mineral that changes under the force of an impact.
Even though the evidence hinted that the crater was created by an ancient space rock, experts have suggested that it is better to wait for the results of all the tests before reaching a final verdict.
But Rochette notes that the discovery of a site like this would be “significant,” as the last meteorite of this magnitude was found in 2013.
Gordon Osinski, an Earth sciences professor at Western University in Canada, says that the pit could very likely be a crash site of a meteorite and that such discoveries are extremely rare on Google Maps.
“It’s quite easy with Google Earth these days to go on and find structures that are circular or semi-circular in origin,” Osinki tells CBC.
“You know, nine times out of 10 they’re not [craters]. It’s super exciting. It doesn’t happen too often.”
Image credits: All photos via Google Maps.